Richard Buckner

When: Fri., Oct. 21, 8 p.m. 2016

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21

RICHARD BUCKNER

Richard Buckner, who records for Merge Records, is one of those artists whose fans, stronger in ardor than in number, speak of him in hushed tones. Across more than two decades, Buckner has shapeshifted from a somewhat cryptic country and folk singer into a kind of art-pop oracle while always retaining his minimalist intimacy and the warm, rough grain of his voice, like honey poured over bark. Keyboards and sampler loops have grown over the splintered planks of his guitar playing like ivy, while his impressionistic lyrics about devotion and uncertainty have retreated even further from sense, toward sublime abstraction—precise feeling without narrative. Buckner's fall tour brings him to The Shed, presumably road-testing new material while continuing to draw from his exquisite 2013 album, Surrounded, a stark, lush study in hard lights and moving shadows. If you're not among the ranks of the faithful yet, come join us. —Brian Howe